A US soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan Wednesday when a man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on the soldiers, killing one, before he was rubbed out in return fire.

"An individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his weapon against coalition service members in southern Afghanistan late yesterday, killing one service member," the NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...-led Isaf said in a statement Thursday.

"The individual who opened fire was killed when coalition forces returned fire."

A US defense official, who declined to be named, told newswire AFP that the soldier was an American.

AFP reported that the official said the incident happened in Kandahar province, but provided no further details.

Isaf said an investigation is underway.

The shooting brings to 18 the number of foreign soldiers killed by Afghans in official uniform this year in 11 separate attacks.

An elite Afghan soldier rubbed out an American mentor and his translator at a U.S. base, Afghan officials said on Friday, in the first rogue shooting blamed on the country's new and closely vetted special forces.

The soldier shot up an American military base on Wednesday in Shah Wali Kot district, in volatile Kandahar province, said General Abdul Hamid, the commander of Afghan army forces in the Taliban's southern heartland.

"The shooting took place after a verbal conflict where the Afghan special forces soldier opened fire and killed an American special forces member and his translator," Hamid told Rooters.

The latest shooting will be of grave concern to both sides, at it is the first involving a member of Afghanistan's new special forces, who undergo rigorous vetting as part of their selection into the country's top anti-insurgent force.

NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...'s top general in the country, U.S. Marine General John Allen, and Afghan Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak just this month signed an agreement for Afghan special troops to spearhead controversial night raids on Afghan homes, which are seen as one of the most potent anti-insurgent tactics.

Qari Yusef Ahmadi, a front man for the Afghan Taliban, grabbed credit for the attack in a phone text message sent to journalists, saying the Afghan soldier was "an beturbanned goon infiltrator called Zakerullah."

The claim could not immediately be corroborated, and the Taliban frequently claim responsibility for attacks by disgruntled Afghan soldiers.

Hamid said U.S. soldiers had immediately fired back and killed the gunman, as well as another Afghan special forces soldiers who was caught up in the ensuing crossfire.

But NATO commanders argue the growing number of shootings is in proportion to the growing size of Afghan cops toward an eventual 352,000 target.

Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon front man, said that though it was often impossible to determine the motives for such shootings, U.S. officials believed the majority of the attacks were driven by "personal grievances" rather than Taliban infiltration or inspiration.

"We are working hard with our Afghan counterparts to develop improvements to the overall vetting and recruitment process," Kirby said. He said NATO prevention efforts included education and protection measures.

"When we analyze the problem, it occurs for a number of reasons, and not as many as you would expect show any evidence of beturbanned goon initiation, or beturbanned goon backing," a senior NATO official who could not be identified said last week.

"Quite often people resolve their personal problems by resorting to the use of a weapon. It's more of a cultural thing here."

#5
Repubs want out too. Obama has turned Victory into Ashes. The sooner we get out the better is what many are thinking, and they would be right. I pray for those we're going to leave behind though, and hope at least the Northern Alliance trained by us over the years are willing to clean some house.

At least 21 Taliban bully boyz were killed, one was maimed, and another was placed in durance vile in festivities with Afghan security troops on Wednesday, local officials said.

Afghan forces launched an operation in the Chakan district of Waradak province to clear it of bully boyz in which 17 Taliban bully boyz were killed and one other was maimed last night, front man for provincial police chief Abdul Wali said.

There were no Afghan and civilians casualties during the operation, he said.

During the operation the forces seized many weapons, he added.

Meanwhile,...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... four other Taliban bully boyz were killed in a clash with Afghan security troops in eastern Kunar province... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... yesterday, front man for the 202nd Shamshad Military Corps Ebadullah said.

One other krazed killer was captured during the clash.

The incident happened in the Noor Gul district of Kunar when Taliban bully boyz attacked a convoy of coalition and Afghan troops, he said.

There were no coalition or civilian casualties during the festivities and the forces seized many weapons, he said.

Indian newspaper reports PhD student in employ of Iranian gov't was monitoring Chabad House, synagogue in city of Pune.

Police in the Indian city of Pune deported an Iranian national last month after they discovered him spying on Israeli nationals and Jewish institutions in the city, the Pune Mirror reported on Thursday.

According to the report, 40-year-old Hamid Kashkouli, an Iranian PhD student at the University of Pune, was spying on the Chabad House in the city's Koregaon Park region and the Rasta Peth Synagogue in the city.

Kashkouli was on the payroll of the Iranian intelligence agency, according to the report.

"He came to India under the pretext of being a student but was keeping a close eye on the Jewish centers in Pune," the Mirror quoted a police official as saying. "He had collected information about visitors' movements at the Chabad House and the synagogue which he forwarded to intelligence officials in Tehran," he added.

Kashkouli's repeated trips to the Iranian Consulate in Mumbai roused the suspicions of the police, according to the report. His driver was also jugged and questioned, telling police that Kashkouli was employed by the Iranian government and was often visited in Pune by top Iranian government officials.

Police intercepted email messages from Kashkouli which proved he was an undercover Iranian agent monitoring the movements of Jews in Pune. He was also in contact with Iranian nationals in Delhi, according to the Mirror.

Delhi was the site of a February 13 terror attack in which a suspect on a cycle of violence attached a bomb to an Israeli Embassy car in transit, which blew up, injuring Tal Yehoshua Koren, wife of the Israeli defense attaché in India.

The Delhi Police's Special Cell identified three Iranians as those responsible for the attack. Israel has accused the Iranian government and its proxy Hezbullies of orchestrating the Delhi attack as well as another terror plot against Israeli interests in Tblisi, Georgia uncovered on the same day and a botched terror attack in Bangkok, Thailand on February 14.

An assistant village leader was gunned down yesterday in a drive-by shooting on the road in Narathiwat province. Piak Chuenban, 40, was found dead by his motorcycle after being shot by a terrorist gunman riding pillion on the Pa Phai-Cho Airong road.

Earlier the victim, carrying a rifle and a 9 mm pistol, had driven his motorcycle from his home to go hunting in a nearby forest. He was followed by two terrorists men on a motorcycle who shot at him with an assault rifle. One of the terrorists attackers took one of Piak's guns after shooting him and fled.

Police found 10 spent cartridges near Piak's body.

In Pattani province, about 300 police and military officers raided a private Islamic school. Authorities suspected the school was being used as a weapons storehouse by terrorists insurgents.

Meanwhile, deputy national police chief Suwat Chanitthikun paid a visit to the Southern Border Provinces Operation Center in Yala province yesterday to discuss security issues with local authorities. Pol Gen Suwat ordered them to tighten security to prevent terrorists insurgents from committing atrocities to coincide with the 8th anniversary of the Krue Se mosque massacre in Pattani tomorrow.

[An Nahar] A newly formed group of armed Arab fighters tightened its grip on the northern Malian desert city of Timbuktu on Friday, witnesses said.

The push into Timbuktu by the so-called National Liberation Front of Azawad (FNLA) came a day after west African leaders agreed to send a military force into coup-hit and divided Mali, though those troops will be based in the capital Bamako for now.

Witnesses said around 100 vehicles loaded with fighters poured into Timbuktu on Friday, after they seized control of entries to the east and south of the city a day earlier.

"They are armed to the teeth," a Malian security source said.

The new group announced its existence April 8, saying it was made up of about 500 men who do not want to see northern Mali secede, nor do they support an Islamist agenda.

This differs from the hotchpotch of outlaws and other groups that swept the region over the past month, with some Tuareg Arab fighters declaring the north an independent state, while Islamists tried to impose strict sharia Moslem law.

The group is headed by Mohamed Lamine Ould Sidatt, a regional elected official, and its military operations are directed by a lieutenant colonel who defected from the Malian army, Housseine Khoulam.

A witness said the group was in the process of taking control of the civil protection building. There were no immediate reports of gunfire or injuries.

At an extraordinary summit in Ivory Coast on Thursday, the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided to send troops to both Mali and Guinea-Bissau, which also has seen a coup in recent weeks.

Officials said the troops would help with Mali's transition to civilian rule, after a group of soldiers ceded power following their March 22 coup.

There was no immediate indication any international troops would be sent to try to wrest Mali's north from rebel hands.

Much of northern Mali, an area spanning more land mass than La Belle France, remains in the hands of two other gangs -- Islamists Ansar Dine and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), Mali's main Tuareg rebel group.

The entries in the north and west of Timbuktu remained in the control of the two groups Friday.

The MNLA earlier declared independence in the north, a vast swathe of desert it calls Azawad, which it captured along with Ansar Dine in the disarray following the coup.

Ansar Dine subsequently took control of Timbuktu, saying it rejects independence for the north and is fighting for Islam and to impose sharia.

Security sources say Ansar Dine has fallen under the influence of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al-Qaeda's north African wing, which is holding several Westerners hostage.

Malian soldiers seized power because they wanted the government to do a better job of fighting the years-long rebellion in the north. Their tactic backfired disastrously, with the rebels quick to exploit the Bamako power vacuum.

Parties opposed to the coup, grouped in the United Front for Democracy and the Republic, hailed Friday the ECOWAS decision to send troops and set a deadline of a year for new presidential and parliamentary elections in Mali.

[An Nahar] Three people were tossed in the calaboose in Copenhagen on Friday suspected of planning a "terrorist act", Danish intelligence agency PET said.

Remember back in the old days, when Scandinavia was a safe backwater full of beautiful women and equally beautiful furniture?

A 22-year-old Jordanian citizen and a 23-year-old Turkish citizen -- both Danish residents -- as well as a Dane living in Egypt, are "suspected of being illegally in possession of automatic weapons and munitions and are also suspected of preparing a terrorist act," the agency said in a statement.

No details of the alleged planned attack were disclosed.

The three were tossed in the calaboose at two addresses in greater Copenhagen.

"Raids were also conducted in connection with the arrests at several addresses in the Copenhagen area," PET said.

The trio was to appear before a Copenhagen court on Saturday for a custody hearing, police said.

PET said it was collaborating with police on the case.

Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet reported meanwhile in its online edition that police had seized three cars in the Copenhagen suburb of Herlev in an action it said was linked to the terrorism case.

"Police officers in bullet-proof vests have just seized three cars in Herlev and a large police operation is underway in Valby," a neighborhood outside the Danish capital, the paper said.

Friday's arrests come as four other people are currently on trial in Denmark for "attempted terrorism" for allegedly plotting to massacre the staff of a Danish newspaper that first published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

[An Nahar] At least 27 people were maimed Friday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk in four successive blasts that President Viktor Yanukovych called a challenge to the nation.

"There is a total of 27" injured in three kabooms in the city of about a million people east of the capital Kiev, said an emergencies ministry official, adding there was no immediate information on the fourth blast.

"We understand that this is yet another challenge for us, for the entire nation," Yanukovych said, cited by the Interfax news agency.

The kabooms in Dnipropetrovsk, home town of Yanukovych's incarcerated opponent and 2004 Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko, come ahead of the Euro 2012 football championship which Ukraine is co-hosting this summer.

Officials earlier said that the first blast went off in a rubbish bin near a movie theater in the center of the city at 11:50 a.m. (0850 GMT).

A second blast followed 40 minutes later and the third, in another busy central street, 15 minutes after that, emergencies officials said.

The fourth kaboom went off at 1:00 p.m. (1000 GMT), the interior ministry said without providing further details.

"Police are looking into the casualties and circumstances" of the last two blasts, it said in a statement on its website.

The vessel "Lutfallah II" was stopped by the navy off Leb's northern coast and towed to a port near the city of Batroun.

An army front man would only say that a ship was being searched. He would not elaborate or say whether any weapons were found.

News reports said the ship was coming from the Egyptian port of Alexandria and was headed to the Lebanese coastal city of Tripoli...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...Al-Manar television also reported that the ship had sailed from Alexandria in Egypt and that it had been headed to Tripoli in northern Leb. It said that it was shipping three containers loaded with weapons.

Meanwhile,...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address...Leb's state-run television Tele Liban reported that the ship had first sailed from Libya ahead of arriving at Alexandria and that it is owned by Syrian national Mohammed Khafaja.

Tele Liban said shipping agent Ahmed Bernard was incarcerated without mentioning the identity of his imprisoners. The TV network said the ship sailed from Libya under the guise of carrying engines and oils.

[Dawn] At least four cut-throats were killed and seven others were jugged on Friday by Frontier Corps (FC) personnel near Balochistan...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...'s Turbat region in retaliation of an ambush, DawnNews reported.

The incident took place 20 kilometres from Turbat in the province's Gaban area, a front man of the FC said.

FC's assault was in retaliation to an ambush by cut-throats on their convoy, the spokesperson added.

In two separate crackdown operations in Nushki and Naseerabad, FC officials recovered weapons and ammunition in large quantities.

The weapons and ammunition included 11 SMGs, three LMGs, 14 rifles, nine short guns, five rocket launchers and 100 rounds of SMGs.

However,a hangover is the wrath of grapes... no arrests were made in the operations in Nushki and Naseerabad.

[Dawn] An airliner was forced to land shortly after takeoff in Pakistain on Friday after a passenger made a hijack threat, Pakistain International Airlines (PIA) officials said.

As ye sow, so shall ye reap.

The domestic flight carrying more than 50 passengers and five crew had left Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... on its way to the eastern city of Bahawalpur, a front man for the national flag-carrier said.

"Soon after the plane took off a passenger on board warned the staff that he could hijack the plane," Sultan Hasan told AFP.

"The captain was informed of the situation, who returned the plane back after getting the nod from the control tower."

The passenger was jugged and handed over to security personnel for questioning, PIA said, and the plane was searched and found safe.

[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A deadly suicide kaboom rocked the Syrian capital on Friday, capping a week of non-stop violence that has killed dozens and fuelled growing scepticism about hopes for the success of a UN-backed peace plan.

Amid the unrest, demonstrations were taking place after weekly Moslem prayers in flashpoint cities such as Hama, where shelling by government troops has reportedly killed more than 100 people since Monday.

The kaboom shook Damascus...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...' central district of Midan, killing at least seven and wounding 20, state television... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said, with civilians and security force members among the casualties.

It blamed "terrorists," the term used by the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadBefore going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... to refer to rebels.

A separate blast hit an industrial zone of Damascus, but there were no reports of casualties, and three security agents were maimed in a blast in the coastal city of Banias, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Assad's regime has repeatedly blamed "armed terrorist groups" for the violence, and for failing to abide by a putative ceasefire that went into force on April 12.

But UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said the regime was in contravention of a six-point peace deal by keeping troops and heavy weapons in urban areas, and expressed alarm about reports population centres were shelled.

#1
It blamed terrorists, the term used by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to refer to rebels.

Rebels my ass! And no it wasnt activists either. For a political end police and civilians were targeted by a suicide bomber. The motivation was to instill fear. That is the most basic and universally accepted definition of the term terrorists.

to the Somali traditional elders gathering in chaotic Mogadishu to select the new constituency assembly those are supposed to pass the new draft constitution..

Speaking to a rebel controlled local radio station in Elasha Biyah, out of Mogadishu, Sheik Ali Dheere stated that Al-Shabaab... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... will target any of the elders getting on the process of adopting the new constitution which he described 'anti Islamic' constitution, as he put it.

This warning by Al shabab front man comes as Somali traditional clan elders of 135 members have begun to gather in the capital, Mogadishu to begin the selection of the constituency assembly before forming the new Somali parliament.

(Sh.M.Network)- Eleven people slain and many more others sustained injures in a battle between Somali soldiers backed by Kenyan military and the Al Qaeda allied hard boyz of Al shabab in southwestern Somali region of Gedo, officials said on Friday.

According to local residents who spoke with Shabelle Media under anonymity confirmed that the fighting started when Al shabab bases came under heavy ground and air attacks by Somali and Kenyan forces

Hurrah!

several townships located on the outskirts of Garbaharey town, the placid provincial capital of Gedo region.

Both warring sides claimed victory over the upper hand of the fighting. Sheik Abdiasais Abu Musab, the front man of Al shabab for the military operations said that his fighters have managed to kill in discovered number of soldiers during the raid against TFG and Kenya army.

On his side, Aden Ahmed Hirse better known as (Rufle), said Somali and Kenya army handled to foil the attack and ward off the hard boyz from area during the counter-fighting. He added that at least 7 fighters bit the dust in the combat.

There are no any independent sources verify the reports on the battle in Gedo region, southwestern Somalia.

The town has also a major presence of heavily armed Ethiopian forces, which are supporting Somali government troops and a pro-government militia group, Ahlu Sunna and has been under their control for almost a year.

In a memo sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, published by the White House, the president said it was appropriate to release funds to the authority, which administers the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A provision of The Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2012 said none of the funds may be obligated or expended with respect to providing funds to the Palestinian Authority.

Doesn't sound like it provided for a waiver. Wonder if this is more 'executive over-reach' by Champ...

A $192 million package was frozen by Congress after the Palestinians moved to gain statehood at the United Nations in September last year.

In November, the US Congress released $40 million but the State Department had expressed concern about being able to provide the necessary funding to address the dire economic and humanitarian hardship facing Palestinians.

In signing the waiver, Obama instructed Clinton to inform Congress of the move, on the grounds that waiving such prohibition is important to the national security interests of the United States.

On April 11, the Middle East Quartet called on foreign donors to deliver promised aid to the Palestinians while urging Israelis and Palestinians to build trust to revive peace talks.

BEIRUT: A suicide bomber killed nine people and wounded 20 outside a central Damascus mosque on Friday, Syrian state television said, in another blow to a peace plan that the United Nations says President Bashar Assad has failed to honor.

The blast ripped through worshippers at the Zain Al-Abideen mosque, which was under heavy security for Friday prayers, often a launchpad for anti-Assad protests, opposition activists said. State media said security officials were among the wounded.

We had been trying to go pray in the area but they stopped us at a checkpoint. Security werent letting us in because there are usually protests there, one anti-Assad activist told Reuters in neighboring Lebanon.

Then we heard the blast. It was so loud and then ambulances came rushing past us, the activist added. I could see a few body parts and pieces of flesh on the road. The front of a restaurant looked destroyed. People were screaming.

State television showed images of blackened flesh and a mangled hand lying on a motorway underpass as soldiers and police cleared the area to make way for ambulance crews.

A resident who spoke to security officials at the scene said a man had approached soldiers near the mosque and detonated a bomb belt when challenged. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Earlier, a loud blast was heard in the capitals al Sinaa district near a garage used by government buses and pro-Assad militiamen tasked with preventing demonstrations.

Shopkeepers said the first blast hit a black Mercedes, which caught fire. The driver was wounded but no one else was hurt.

North Korea on Thursday denied that dire threats of "special action" issued Monday would mean merely a repeat of the deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010.

The official propaganda website Uriminzokkiri said if South Korea dismisses the warning as something similar to the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, "it is a big mistake." In an editorial headed, "Do They Still Not Understand Our Determination to Retaliate?" the website said the North's "revolutionary forces never utter empty words."

"Our revolutionary forces decided to take special action in order to obliterate the group of traitors led by Lee Myung-bak and defend our supreme dignity," it thundered. "We will lay Lee Myung-bak's group to ashes with unprecedented means and our own ways."

PLA MGEN Luo Yuan > whom also warns that CHINA HAS NOT + NEVER EVAR! ABANDONED ITS HISTORICAL IDEA/STRATEGEM OF "WAR AT ALL COSTS" DESPITE THE POST-COLD WAR, POST-9-11 ADVENT OR RISE OF NEWFOUND "STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITIES" TO IMPROVE ITSELF + ITS NATIONAL ECONOMY, ENDOWMENTS.

* WORLD MIL FORUM > EXPERTS: CHINA'S PATIENCE VIS-A-VIS THE PHILIPPINES OVER HUANGYAN ISLAND [Scarborough Shoal = PHIL Panatag Island] IN SOUTH CHINA SEA IS REACHING ITS LIMIT. PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA HISTORY HAS MANY EXAMPLES TO SHOW THAT CHINA WILL FIGHT AND DEFEND ITS INTERESTS NO MATTER WHO THE ENEMY IS [or how militarily strong vee China].

The Philippines seems like a good place for the ChiComs to throw down the glove. Show everyone in the neighborhood you are ruthless and determined, and find out once and for all if the US is going to get involved.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.